Yemenis reclaim their towns after war to vanquish al-Qaeda

The al-Qaeda graffiti stands proud on the half-collapsed walls. "Traitor
slaves of the US", it says, accusing the Yemeni army of prostituting
itself to the Islamists' imperialist foe.

The car of a military commander is lifted after a suicide bomber blew himself up next to it, killing the official in the southern Yemeni city of AdenPhoto: Reuters

By Adam Baron in Zinjibar

8:16PM BST 18 Jun 2012

But the militants are gone, vanished into the hills. It has taken vicious fighting to expel them and the evidence is in the wrecked shells of homes, bombed-out mosques, and a deep resentment among the local population, many happy to see them gone but others with loyalties still uncertain.

"These terrorists were not even humans – they're animals," said one soldier, brandishing a bloodstained sword that, locals say, the militants used to conduct executions. "We thank God for the victory, but will continue hunting the militants wherever we find them."

For much of the past year, the Southern Yemen hub of Zinjibar and its surrounding cities have been that rare thing: territory seized, held and run by Ansar al-Sharia, the local front for al-Qaeda. But in the past month, these once minor outposts of a country long seen as exotic, poor, and remote from Western concerns have become the front line in a muscular strategy by the United States and its allies in taking on the militant group.

Backed by intensive drone strikes and with the help of US military advisers, the Yemeni army has struck back. Last week it retook first the town of Jaar, then Zinjibar and then Shaqra, its last outpost in the province of Abyan, next to the strategic port city of Aden.

It was a rapid string of victories marred only by the retaliatory killing On Monday of its mastermind, Major General Salem Ali Qatan, head of Yemeni southern command. A suicide bomber threw himself in front of his car.

Immediately following Zinjibar and Jaar's recapture, The Daily Telegraph was the first Western news organisation invited to see the result. At first glance, there was a disturbing normality. Carts pulled by camels took piles of fruit through newly imposed army checkpoints. Just a day after the army moved in, residents were trickling back, reoccupying what was left of their homes and taking stock of their losses.

More than 100,000 civilians fled in Abyan province alone. In the town of Al-Kawd, set in the crosshairs of the battle, houses next to a prison used as a militant base were just rubble. In Zinjibar, where the governor's mansion was retaken last Tuesday, a member of the local council, Talha al-Ahmadi, stood in the shadow of the ruins and said citizens could reclaim the town's streets.

Ansar's draconian interpretation of Islamic law had rendered women like her nearly invisible for the past year. "For women, it was terrible, it was like a prison," she said. "We couldn't even walk in the streets."

Western politicians are linking the success to the departure this year of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's ruler of 30 years. His extended family controlled the security apparatus, which started to break down with "Arab Spring" protests against him.

The vice-president who replaced him, Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has proved a more decisive figure than expected. His appointment of Maj Gen Qatan was a key move, and his death cast a shadow over a meeting yesterday between Mr Hadi and Gen James Mattis, the head of US Central Command. They agreed the campaign would continue unabated.

Many Yemenis believe Mr Saleh deliberately encouraged al-Qaeda because its presence guaranteed continued Western backing.

Mrs al-Ahmadi flew into a rage upon seeing a poster of Mr Saleh on the ground. "This is the biggest terrorist in Yemen," she said, ripping it up as hundreds of soldiers looked on, some shouting agreement. "Ali Abdullah Saleh is the head of al-Qaeda in Yemen."

For much of the war, underequipped and increasingly fatigued soldiers were set against zealous Islamist warriors, a mixture of armed tribesmen, foreign fighters and veteran jihadis. The militants fought under their own banner but were still formally led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In Jaar, the reconquest does nothing to address complaints of a dearth of basic services such as electricity and water. The destruction of the town's mosques, blamed by locals on American air strikes, was testament to the struggle for hearts and minds that remains to be fought. Drone strikes are militarily useful but alienate local populations.

Resentful faces suggested support for the government was not universal, but even many who welcomed its return feared they would soon be forgotten.

"We're very happy," said Haiter al-Shadadi, standing next to a bombed-out building. "But the toll of the past year has destroyed our homes and lives. Even if the military thinks it's over, it's just beginning for us."